Can You Believe
by RoyalJavelin
Summary: You are Casey, a soon-to-be detective and avid gamer. One day, when you're sitting at home on an off day, a strange message on Trillian changes your life, forever. You're transported to the ME world, but not at the time you expected! Rated T for later.
1. Chapter 1

You run through the early morning routine with relative ease, in a slightly subdued state. You shuffle into the living room, combing your fingers through your messy red hair; you tired green eyes flicking across the room. You didn't have work today, but you sure as hell have a lot of shit to get done.

Your name is Casey Caster. You live alone in a small apartment, working as an officer in the police department nearby. Your detective exam is next week, and since today is a Sunday you've decided to take the day off to 'study,' which inevitably means procrastinating as much as possible to avoid studying. You yawn, kicking your Xbox controller out of your way as you shuffle forward to the kitchen, picking up your phone and scrolling through the messages. Many of them are from your mom, your friend Taavi, and you're Uncle who's been funding your education. You should probably get back to them on that. You shove your phone into your pocket and shuffle up to your pantry, grabbing some generic cereal and pouring it into a bowl and shuffling back onto the couch.

You flop down, already bored, and yawn again, using your hands to eat your dry cereal before pulling you hair back and setting your laptop in your lap.

Your eyes flicker from your inbox icon and the games folder, and you figure it's time to make a moral decision. In your inbox may be something important, but today is your day off. You should be allowed to relax a little, right?

You hide your flashing inbox sign and open up the games folder on your computer. You feel proud that you made the right decision. In a couple years, you'd never be happier that you'd pressed that button.

You glance around through your games folder, finally settling on a game you haven't played in far too long. You're pretty sure that everyone reading this can guess which game it is, that's right, Mass Effect. You decide to play Mass Effect 1, since you cot a new computer recently and all of your data was wiped clean. You make it popped in, so you can still see your Trillian in case someone messages you something important. You spend longer than you should constructing your Shepard, a biracial-looking woman with a wide jaw and short curly hair. You manage to get through a good chunk of the first part of the game before realizing that you've been playing for hours and someone is messaging you on Trillian! You minimize ME, and open up your Trillian so you won't forget.

What you see thoroughly confuses you, you don't know who's chatting with you and, well, they're not exactly speaking English. Line after line of gibberish has been typed, and you decide to reply,

_What?_

There's a pause. Suddenly, where the weather was clear and sunny before, it started pouring down suddenly, thunder boomed loudly in your room and then, most surprisingly, your laptop exploded in a flash of blue light and you were slammed against the wall. Your vision goes black.

You sit bolt upright, pulled back into consciousness suddenly. You open your eyes and look around. What you see is hard to believe.

The arms of a superstructure reach out in front of you, curving upward. In the distance, you can see what you assume are artificial trees, water… You just can't wrap your thinker around this. The floors and walls are covered with white panels, some sort of tile you guess. There's no way this can be real. You pinch yourself, you must be dreaming. You squeeze y our eyes shut tightly and pinch yourself again, harder. All you manage to do is hurt your arm. When you open your eyes, nothing has changed and, for the first time in years, you feel honestly afraid.

You lean against a wall and sink to the floor, your head in your hands, still trying to work this out in your head. You look up, eyes flashing around a small structure holding a potted plant, and your eyes widen again as you see all kinds of different races walking around like it's nothing. Your eyes connect with a turian's and he squints at you suspiciously before shaking his head at you disapprovingly.

Your head spins as the gravity of the situation drops on your shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

You are not in motherfucking Kansas, anymore.

You are at least 150 years in the future.

You are on the Citadel.

**So, that's the beginning ! I know, I know, Its short.**

**I don't know where this is going, haha, but I have a general idea?**

**Someone berate me already.**

**Should I keep the second person thing or no? I know its more closely associated with choose your own adventure books...**

**Uh, If I get positive feedback, I guess I'll post the next chapter? It WILL be longer, don't worry!**

**:33 Review purrlease! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hopy shit I've neglected this motherfucker**

**Uh, here's another chapter guys! Apologies apologies!**

You look down at your outfit, suddenly feeling very, very embarrassed. Here you were, freaking out behind a potted plant in your pajamas. You must look insane. You don't want to stand up, because you don't want the _looks. _Ever since preschool, you couldn't STAND when people looked at you funny. So you just sat behind the potted plant, with your messy hair and your stupid pajamas. You sat, peeking out every couple of minutes to look at your surroundings.

Okay. There weren't all that many people around. All you needed to do was get your bearings. Then you could get around quickly enough to do… Whatever the hell it was you needed to do.

You pause. Okay, you were definitely going to have to think up a plan. Like, now. You've read your fair share of Mass Effect fanfictions, many of them Self-Insert, so you'd like to image you have a somewhat vague idea of how to maneuver about in this universe. Finding Shepard should be your first priority, right?

Right.

You just needed to find some sort of extranet terminal, or whatever the fuck those things were called, and find her name. You pull your phone out of your pocket, looking at the text messages that were sent only minutes ago from your perspective. Taavi. Mom. Uncle Bernard. All people who you might never see again. Fuck.

That's really the only word you can think right now. Fuck, fuck. Fuck.

You should have just studied. You shouldn't have pressed the fucking game folder. And you shouldn't have replied to that douche on Trillian. Seriously, how did he even get your screen name?

You stand up, thinking 'fuck it' and you walk over to what you remember as being an extranet terminal. An Asari, an actual physical Asari (Who was kind of hot) eyed you curiously before walking away. What was your Shepard's name? What was her name?

You type in Alexandria Shepard. Alexandria was going to be your name, so it had always held a special place in your heart. The icon 'blipped' as it came up with a result.

_Shepard, Alexandria. _

_Age: 26_

_Gender: F_

_Ethnicity: Other_

It was YOUR Shepard. Her background, her looks, her everything. You back away from the terminal when you realize something. The terminal displays the day, month, year and time in the bottom right. 26/5/2180.

2180.

_Twenty-one fucking eighty._

The events of Mass Effect start in 2183.

You're three years too early.

What now?

**Soooo what do you think about that chapter? Review pls.**

**Anything I should change? I hate seeing all of these similarities between my stories and others, so if anyone sees anything that I should take out to avoid some sort of… thing, tell me PLEASE.**

**Also, I know these chapters are short, but once the story starts to pick up they'll be longer! Bear with me, luves. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Wowie wow I am cranking these lil shorties out! But guys I don't wanna get your hopes up, 'round Monday this stuff is gonna go back to its regular update schedule: Whenever I remember it exists.**

What now?

You're head is reeling. You can't THINK for the life of you. What now?

You find your concealed potted plant and bite your lip. Okay. You couldn't find Shepard.

Which makes you think, do you even WANT to find her? You know what's going to happen_, everything_ that's going to happen (Up until mass effect three, that is.), and with your weapons training you could be a useful asset to the team. But, you don't know if you want to go through the events of Mass Effect. Or Mass Effect 2, for that matter. You don't know if you're ready for that kind of stuff. Suddenly your head is hurting. You take your phone out of your pocket and bite your lip.

Someone might buy this off of you. Maybe.

And you weren't going to need it. You roll your tongue across your teeth before clearing the history on your phone. Drastic, yeah. All your photos, texts, music. Gone. Fuck, why was your generation so dependent on phones? You look at your now-blank screen, and then repocket the phone.

Maybe you weren't ready for Mass Effect. But you had three years to get ready.

* * *

><p>It was definitely time to leave the potted plant. Screw hiding. You didn't care<br>about the looks enough anymore. You stand up and quickly get your bearings. Yeah, you knew where you needed to go. When it comes to remembering games, you're simply the best there is. You head down to Choras Den, locating the markets from there.

There must be someone here who would be willing to buy your stuff. Eventually, you find an Asari who was eagerly willing to buy it from me with eight thousand credits and an Omni tool. You actually couldn't believe you were getting this much for it, and you quickly slide it out of your pocket. You sigh, looking at it. It was so stupid, and you'd ordered a special case from the internet for it. It was bright and gaudy and cherry red with a teal stripe on it and you were going to miss the hell out of the ugly thing.

You hand it over to her, and smile. You probably could have gotten it for more, but she seemed pretty nice and could probably get a better price for it. Your plan shifts and changes as your surroundings do, and you find yourself in a small market next to a clothing store.

You had eight thousand credits. Surely you could afford to buy something to wear.

The rest of your plan formulates rapidly as you spot a sign pointing the way to the C-Sec academy. That's where you needed to be.

* * *

><p>After a little bit of time, you take a small chunk from your money to buy a couple new outfits. You were looking ahead, and you bought something that was casual (Which you had changed into), a more formal outfit, a dress (God forbid you'd ever have to wear it), a pair of nice shoes and a backpack to carry all your shit in.<p>

Now that you looked at least somewhat presentable, you left the store with the bag slinged over your shoulder.

If you couldn't find Shepard, well, you needed to find the next best thing.

You enter the C-Sec offices, and bite your lip.

"What can I do for you, ma'am?" A cheerful looking Turian sitting at the front desk asks.

"Oh, uh, I'm here to…" You falter. You should have written a script or something.

"Oh, you must be the human applying for detective, right?" Wow, this guy was straight forward. He taps around on the computer for a minute, and then says, "Caster?"

Whoa, shit. You pause for a second.

"Yeah. That's me, Casey Caster." You shake hands with him, and smile. "Is there anyone I need to talk to or anything?" I ask.

"Yes ma'am," he says cheerily. You don't know if you could get past his cheerfulness. "You'll need to speak with Executor Pallin. He should be down that hallway and to the right." He gives a little nod.

"Oh, uh, thanks." You say, and then frown. "Hey, can I take a look at my application?" You ask.

"Sure thing, ma'am!" He says, turning the screen so you could see it. There was a picture of your face, along with random stats about you and your life. It claimed that you'd passed your exams with flying colors. Thank god. You nod, and back away from the desk. You walk down the hallway, and look to your right as the cheerful turian from before said. The door is just like any other door you've encountered your few hours here on the citadel, but so much more imposing. Executor Pallin was waiting for you on the other side of the door. A character you'd hated in a game, who you'd known was fake not ten hours ago, was now about to change your actual life.

You take a deep breath, and adjust your hair slightly before pressing the release button. The door opens swiftly, and you swallow hard before taking a step through.

**Um okay so that's the end of chapter three! Did you like?**

**I think this is the longest chapter BY FAR so yay me! This was actually material that would have been spread over several chapters but I was like FUCK IT my oh so devoted fans (yesh right) probably want a longer chapter!**

**Ummm yeah! R&R please? Thanks, luves!**

**JAVELIN OUT**


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